title: Characterizing food waste substrates for co-digestion through biochemical methane potential (BMP) experiments.
abstract: Co-digestion of food waste with dairy manure is increasingly utilized to increase energy production and make anaerobic digestion more affordable; however, there is a lack of information on appropriate co-digestion substrates. In this study, biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests were conducted to determine the suitability of four food waste substrates (meatball, chicken, cranberry and ice cream processing wastes) for co-digestion with flushed dairy manure at a ratio of 3.2% food waste and 96.8% manure (by volume), which equated to 14.7% (ice-cream) to 80.7% (chicken) of the VS being attributed to the food waste. All treatments led to increases in methane production, ranging from a 67.0% increase (ice cream waste) to a 2940% increase (chicken processing waste) compared to digesting manure alone, demonstrating the large potential methane production of food waste additions compared to relatively low methane production potential of the flushed dairy manure, even if the overall quantity of food waste added was minimal.
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland, Department of Environmental Science and Technology, University of Maryland Energy Research Center, 1445 Animal Science/Ag Engineering Blgd., College Park, MD 20742, USA; Maimonides University, Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Hidalgo 775, C1405BCK CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Maria Sol
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Lisboa
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lansing
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056804:Biofuels; D002417:Cattle; D005735:Garbage; D008372:Manure; D008697:Methane
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D008372:Manure; D008697:Methane
keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Co-digestion substrates; Covered lagoon digester; Dairy manure; Methane